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The BT Decor 1500 Corded Telephone!

The BT Decor 1500 Corded Telephone

Why was the old corded phone was replaced?

I have found that landline phones manufactured by BT are of excellent quality. The last BT phone that we had lasted 25 years as the phone was wall mounted in place and so we never got round to removing the phone because it worked so well! However, we decided that a more modern looking phone was required as it near the doorway and it is the first thing everyone tends to look at as they enter the house. My husband thought the phone was some kind of strange payphone when he first visited my family home many years ago. The landline is not used that much as we tend to use the cordless phones more often. However, we still found it necessary to have the landline phone present incase the corded phone ran out of charge or incase my daughter hides the cordless phone which she often does!

Why did I choose to buy the BT Decor 1500 Corded Telephone?

I chose the phone BT Decor 1500 Corded Telephone to replace the existing phone. The phone was brought in August 2011. The reason I chose this phone was because it was reasonably priced (cheap - £24.82 at Tesco!) and the phone had good range of features such as a voicemail function. The other reason I chose this phone was that it was wall mountable.

Evaluating the features of BT Decor 1500 Corded Telephone

The reception is very good and always present while using the BT Decor 1500 Corded Telephone. The clarity of speech is also very clear and concise especially when making international phone calls.The BT Decor 1500 Corded Telephone has a phone number capacity of 10 numbers. This is enough for the regular numbers that phone calls are made to from the landline. It would have been better if it could store more numbers, however we are all heavily reliant on our mobile phone books / cordless phonebook, so looking up urgent numbers on the mobile is not a problem! The phonebook capacity is not that great so in the future we may upgrade to BT Paragon650 Telephone which can store 200 names and numbers, however this corded phone is much more expensive than the BT Decor 1500 Corded Telephone (£54.97 - more than double the price of the BT Decor 1500 Corded Telephone).

A positive feature of the phone is that it has a visual ring indicator /message waiting indicator which flashes a red light if there is a missed call or a voicemail. This is particularly useful because if I go out somewhere, I am able to know as soon as I walk through the door that there is a missed call or voicemail. The BT Décor 1500 is able to record a 12minute voicemail on its machine; however I don't think anyone has ever left me a voicemail that is longer than 4 minutes unless it was by accident!The BT Decor 1500 Corded Telephone is able to log the last ten calls that have been made and has a last number re-dial option. The phone has an adjustable ringer indicator. There are three different ringtones but I often choose the plain traditional ring ring! The phone has adjustable ringer volume; this is particular useful as I can reduce the ringer volume when my daughter is sleeping so that the ringing phone won't wake her up.

The BT Decor 1500 Corded Telephone is hearing aid compatible; however I am not able to comment on the effectiveness of this feature as no one in the household has hearing problems at the moment. Maybe I will update the comment on the hearing aid compatibility in a few years' time as I may need it as I get older as I am listening to too much loud music!

The BT Decor 1500 Corded Telephone is wall mountable. We originally wall mounted our phone, however, I once received a distressful phone call and hung up the phone harshly and the top clip snapped and the phone kept slipping of the handset. We had to dismantle the phone off the wall and now it is placed flat on a little shelf stand. I think BT should have made the phone more slam proof the phone as I am sure a lot of people do that! Besides the previous BT phone we had lasted 25 years and we had no problem with the phone slipping off the handset. I think this is one area where the phone needs to be improved upon.

Cost Comparison of BT Decor 1500 Corded Telephone

The cost of the BT Decor 1500 Corded Telephone at Tesco is £24.82. If you want to purchase the BT Decor 1500 Corded Telephone, the catalogue number is 100-9072. The BT Decor 1500 Corded Telephone is also available at Argos for £29.36, Currys for £29.99 and PC World for £29.99.

Conclusion

I would definitely recommend that you buy the BT Decor 1500 Corded Telephone as it is good value for money and offers a good range of features. There were some drawbacks but these are outweighed by the many positive features.

Comments

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I have found the BT Décor 1500 telephone / answer machine good value for money. I must admit it was the large, easy to use and read, keypad buttons that attracted me first but it is also functionally smart and can be wall mounted if desired. Setting up was a breeze, even recording a personal message was relatively easy. The user guide of course helped. I found it clearly written with good diagrams to help me get started. When a message is received, the phone emits a loud peep to alert you when you get home that there is a message waiting. The number of messages received and the delete button are located in the centre of an oval 'control pad' located at the top of the keypad. The 'control' buttons are also clear and easy to use. The large 'play' button is on the right of the control pad and the on/off and OGM buttons on the left. At the top, the volume plus or minus makes it easy to adjust the sound when listening to a message and at the bottom are the skip forward, stop and skip backward buttons. The Décor 1500 has other facilities such as redial, store, memory, secrecy. It has also a 'remote access' facility which I have not used as yet. There is no information regarding updating this phone in the user guide.